Leptosema aphyllum (Hook.) Crisp

Scientific Description

Twining or climbing plants, shrub, spindly shrub (broom-like). Stems flattened or winged, not spiny, glabrous; pustules or glands absent. Leaves or phylloclades absent or apparently so (reduced to scales), alternate, glabrous, flat with flat margins; margins entire; tubercles absent, 4-10; pustules or glands absent. Stipules apparently absent even from the youngest leaves. Pedicel present, 4-6 mm long, hairy. Bracteoles present and persistent, 0.5-2 mm long, hairy, not striate. Calyx 25-28 mm long, not accrescent, hairy, with simple hairs, ribless; pustules or glands absent. Corolla 32-45 mm long, multicoloured, mostly yellow, red or green, with some yellow, red or green spots, streaks or blotches; claws absent, glabrous, not auriculate, wings 17 mm long, not auriculate, keel 30-40 mm long, not beaked, not auriculate, glabrous. Stamens ten; anthers 3-4 mm long, at two different levels (filaments alternately long and short); filaments free (or united at the very base), 24-32 mm long. Ovary stipitate, hairy or glandular; style 38 mm long, hairy or glandular towards the base, not bearded, terete. Fruit dehiscent (a pod or follicle), sessile or subsessile, not constricted between the seeds, flat or compressed, glabrous, not beaked. Flowers in May, June, July, August, September and October. Occurs in the Eremaean and South-West Botanical Province, in the Geraldton Sandplains and Avon Wheatbelt IBRA regions.